Australia clinched the Chappell-Hadlee trophy as the Aussie captain Ricky Ponting produced a whirl-wind knock of 134, which made sure their trans-Tasmanian rivals had no chance of regaining the trophy. Australia had lost the last Chappell-Hadlee trophy series to the Kiwis in New Zealand by an embarrassing 3-0 margin. This was a sweet revenge for Ponting who played two splendid knocks in a space of a week to make sure that the trophy came back home.
While Australia won the first match by 7 wickets, riding on a Ponting century and the second match at Sydney was lost to rain, the hosts once again won the final encounter in Hobart with a huge 114-run margin. The world champions seem to have a habit of making the big games one sided by producing brilliant performances that give their opposition no chance. The match started pretty well for New Zealand when they got both Hayden and Hussey cheaply. But then Ponting made sure there were no further alarms as even Clarke walked back to the hut. Ponting put on a good partnership with Wicket-keeper Brad Haddin who scored a wonderful little 26 and then ran himself out.
Then Ponting struck an unbeaten 134 sharing a 114-run stand with Andrew Symonds (52) as Australia made 282-6. Punter scored his knock in 132 balls with 10 fours and 2 sixes. In reply to the target New Zealand crumbled under the pace of Bret Lee who picked up 3-47 and Shaun Tait who ended up with figures of 2-31. Soon the Kiwis were struggling at 72-5 when a few lusty hits from Styris helped them to a respectable 168 before they were bundled out. Scott Styris played a lone hand with his 74, but that was too little to stop the Aussie roll.
The victory saw Australia in good form and also is a sign of things to come for India, while New Zealand has been just out classed by Ponting himself and his pace battery that seems to be finely tuned to face up the contest against Indian batting line up. For Ponting, this was sweet revenge against old foes.
Third one-day international; Match summary:
Australia 282-6 (50 overs) beat New Zealand 168 (34 overs) by 114 runs.
